My Mom and I were walking up to my sister's softball game, at Clintonwood Park, it was in the middle of the summer and hot, my Mom and I picked the fourth step of the silver bleachers, there was no way I was sitting down on the blazing hot bleachers, so I stood and played with my Polly pockets. I was wearing my favorite shirt with kittens on it, blue jean shorts, and my red, white, and blue flip flops. As I went to move my brown pug, I tripped on my flip flop causing me to start to fall. On the way down I attempted to grab the step and missed. I fell on the hard, dirt ground, on my right elbow.

I immediately started screaming and saying “I BROKE MY ARM!” My Mom picked me up off the hard ground, and put me in our extra chair. She said “MARY, knock it off! People are starting to stare.” But I couldn't, my arm was in so much pain. Even now I can remember the immense pain that occurred from the arthritis I get in my right arm. Since I continued to cry my mom decided maybe there really was something wrong, she picked me up and took me to our shiny blue van and got me buckled up in the back. While she went to get the rest of our stuff, I was balling my eyes out and screaming in agony. She got the stuff in the car and said “Let's go to the high school and pick up your brother and father from football practice, and see what your father thinks about your arm.”

We got there and my brother got in the passenger seat and my dad got in the back to look at my arm. When he got in, he said “So what happened?” My mom explained “She fell off of the bleachers, and started screaming I broke my arm, I broke my arm.” So he said “Let me see your arm honey.” I reluctantly held it out, he started moving my arm to the right then the left, and was feeling my elbow to see if he could feel anything wrong with it, with all the moves of my arm I screamed and cried even more, it was terrible! When he was finished he said “Oh yea, something's wrong, we should get her to the hospital.”

My mom stepped on the gas all the way to Huron Valley Hospital. We went into the emergency room at the hospital. When it was finally my turn the nurse took me into the x-ray room, and my parents stood on the other side. The x-ray room was dark, cold, and scary. The nurse picked me up and put me on the cold, metal, examination table she said “The doctor is just going to take some pictures of your arm to see what's wrong.” She got my arm away from my grasp and started moving it into position for the x-ray. Just in case you were wondering it was the worst pain I have ever experienced in my life. Once they had gotten 3 or 4 pictures of my arm in various positions, the nurse put me in a wheelchair and wheeled me out into the hallway. She gave me a stuffed Yogi Bear to make me feel better. My mom and dad joined me a little later and my mom said  “Honey, I’m so sorry.” The doctor had given them my x-rays and told them that we would have to go to Children's Hospital, which is only 30 minutes away. Needless to say we got to Children's Hospital, I had surgery, and had a cast on my arm for eight weeks before it was removed.

It's been eleven years since my accident and I’ve realized I hate heights, I’m afraid I'm going to fall off again and  break my arm and experience the same agonizing pain again. Also I’m very clumsy and needed to watch where I’m going or else it could happen again. I also will still not go on those metal monsters, in fact just a couple of weeks ago I went to my cousins softball game, when my mom said “Mary get up there!"
"Mom I've told you before I don't like bleachers, I will just stand over here, thanks." My mom and the rest of my family went and sat on the bleachers while I stood near them, my mother doesn't understand my fear of them. She thinks it's irrational and childish, she doesn't believe I should still be afraid of them anymore because it was eleven years ago. She doesn't understand that what happened to me has affected my whole life. I can no longer play softball because of the arthritis in my throwing arm. And because of me breaking my arm I’ve harbored ill feeling towards bleachers because I’m afraid that this could happen to me again.